368 PHYTOGKAPHY. 



names are abbreviated to a sign ; as L. for Linnaeus, DC. for 

 DeCandolle, HBK. for Humboldt, Boupland, and Kunth, the 

 latter too long after ordinary abbreviation. 1 Care should be 

 taken to affix the period by which abbreviations may be dis- 

 tinguished from full names, such as Don, Ker, Blytt. 



764. Abbreviations of titles of works follow the same rules as 

 those of names, or at least are in no wise peculiar in botany. 



765. Abbreviations of the names of organs follow the same 

 rule : Gal. for calyx, Cur. for corolla, Stain, for stamen or 

 stamina, Pist. for pistillum or pis'til, Fr. for fructus or fruit, 

 Per. for pericarpium or pericarp, Sem. for semen or seed, are the 

 most common. Hab. for habitat or geographical station. Herb. 

 for herbarium, Gen. for genus, /S/y. or Spec, for species, Var. for 

 variety, and the like, every one will understand. But some 

 abbreviations which are common in botanical writings, at least 

 those in Latin, may need explanation to the elementary student. 

 A list of abbreviations is appended. See p. 390. 



766. Signs. Under this head might be ranked such abbrevia- 

 tions as v. v. for vidi vivam, v. s. for vidi siccam, to note that the 

 writer has seen the plant, either alive or in a dried specimen ; or, 

 more particularly, v. s. s., when it is a spontaneous specimen 

 that has been examined in a dried state, and v. s. c., when it was 

 a cultivated specimen ; v. v. c., when the living plant was seen 

 in a garden only, and v. v. s., when the spontaneously growing 

 plant was seen alive. There are also proper signs, of which the 

 most common are those which indicate the sexes of blossoms, 

 the duration of a plant, and the like. Also the interrogation 

 point (?) used to express doubt ; the exclamation point (!) to 

 indicate the certainty that is given by the actual sight of an 

 authentic original specimen. See p. 391. 



767. The marks used to indicate the subordination of sections 

 under a genus, or in the synoptical arrangement of genera, and 

 the like, are not settled by any fixed rule. An approved ar- 

 rangement is to employ the following marks in the given order, 

 *-)-=. The first one, for sections of the highest order, 

 takes numerals after the sign. Ex. 1, and so on. When 



1 As Alph. DeCandolle remarks, the proper abbreviation of the name he 

 bears is Cand. But the form DC. was very early adopted by the first of 

 the illustrious name, and has been continued for almost three quarters of a 

 century. Alphonse DeCandolle would prefer to write it D.C., but has not 

 adopted that mode, nor should we; for DC. and HBK. are convenient ab- 

 breviations reduced to signs. But such forms should not be increased. For 

 ordinary names they would be unintelligible. 



Names which are not too long, and of which an abbreviation by the ordi 

 nary rule is insufficient, such as Decaisne, should rather be written in full. 



